Do not allow epithets to eclipse the real question

Even after he was gagged by the court, Trade, Investments and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has gone ahead with his media-bashing by, once again, unabashedly describing journalists as prostitutes.

We do not know exactly what Mr Kuria has against commercial sex workers - the desperate women who resort to selling their bodies to fend for their children partly because of the government's failure to provide them with more dignified means of earning a living - but we do know that he has a beef with journalists, specifically Nation Media Group, over their investigative story which alleged a major scandal in the importation of duty free cooking oil.

Unfortunately, this important piece of journalism is almost being buried under the mountain of epithets and sharp condemnation that followed its publication.

Indeed, what the public is now mostly discussing are epithets hurled by the CS and his supporters and the alleged irresponsibility of the media, as opposed to the substance of the expose.

That is not to say that the public should be unbothered when high-ranking officials use uncouth language. However, they should be more concerned about allegations of malfeasance in government.

Corruption is a big problem in this country and any allegation on the same should be taken with the seriousness it deserves. The question is, was there corruption in the importation of the cooking oil and if so who were involved?

We would have expected the top brass in government to demand investigations into the alleged scandal, not to jump into the media-lynching bandwagon. Doing so makes it to seem like the scandal is imaginary; that the allegations were concocted. It makes journalists to appear malicious. It also makes preposterous claims that journalists are fighting in Raila's corner seem true, especially to gullible citizens who are not capable of critical thinking.

Only hard evidence can reveal the truth about the alleged cooking oil scandal. Hurling obscenities will do nothing to assuage taxpayers that their money is being spent diligently.